Pink diamond sells for a world record $71.2M

Sotheby's sold a 59.6-carat pink diamond for about $71 million (2.4 billion baht) in Hong Kong, setting the world record for the top auction price for any gem.

November 2010: The Graff Pink, a 24.78-carat "fancy intense pink" stone described as "one of the greatest diamonds ever discovered", auctioned for $46.2m (£29m).

The 14.62 carat vivid blue diamond was sold by Christie's for $57.5 million last May to an undisclosed buyer.

It sold for $83m in Geneva in 2013 but the buyer later defaulted.

The auction house wrote "a new chapter in its story by offering it for sale in Hong Kong, now a global epicenter for the world's wealthy", said Tobias Kormind of 77 Diamonds, an online diamond jewelry seller.

"Sotheby s Hong Kong is very proud to have this record", its Asia chairman Patti Wong told AFP, adding this was a new world auction record for any type of jewel.

The previous recoed was helf by the Oppenheimer Blue, which sold for $50 million last May.

Originally a 132.5 carat rough diamond, the Pink Star took two years to cut and polish after being mined in Botswana by De Beers in 1999.

The auction house was forced to buy the diamond from the seller because it had guaranteed a $60 million sale price.

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